Gifted Atlanta

Girls interested in STEM can learn from women who work in their fields of interest during the STEM Gems Summit on March 19, 2022. This online event will feature women who work in STEM-oriented careers at organizations including Merck, 3M and Amazon Web Services. Tickets start at $15.

STEM Gems is the brainchild of scientist Stephany Espy, who seeks to encourage girls to pursue STEM careers by connecting them with female mentors.

Gwinnett Alliance for Gifted Education is now registering elementary- and middle-school students for the next session of its Saturday Exploration Program, which will be held online.

Class topics include digital storytelling, 3D design, stop motion movies, drones and more.

Classes will meet weekly for five Saturdays, February 26 through March 26. Cost to enroll is $125 for GAGE members, $150 for non-members. Registration deadline is February 21.

This year’s Great Backyard Bird Count will start on Friday, Feb. 18, and continue through Monday, Feb. 21. This worldwide citizen science project, which started in 1998, is a cooperative effort among the National Audubon Society, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and Birds Canada.

To participate, you’ll watch the birds in your back yard, at a local park, or maybe around your school playground for as little as 15 minutes on any of the four days. You can count on more than one day, or watch longer if you want. After counting the birds, you send in your data, either by using an app you download to your phone, or by entering your counts on the eBird website.

Not only can you collect data for these projects, but you can also view the data being collected all over the world — a great opportunity to see scientific research in action.

The Math Circle program at Emory University is now registering for its spring 2022 classes, which will be a mix of online and in-person sessions.

All middle-school sections will be held online, via Zoom. Each online session will be 40 minutes long.

Two sections for high-school students will be held in person, on the Emory campus. In-person classes will meet for 75 minutes. Students enrolling in the in-person sections must show proof of vaccination (including a booster shot, if eligible) and must wear masks in the classroom, in accordance with Emory policy.

A separate online section will be offered for high-schoolers who prefer to meet virtually.

Math Circle is a free enrichment program for middle-school and high-school kids who are fascinated by mathematics and who want to explore math topics beyond what’s taught in the typical classroom. Classes meet twice a month on Saturdays. In-person classes begin this Saturday, January 29. Online classes begin February 5.

The Vanderbilt Program for Talented Youth is now accepting applications from students in 10th through 12th grades for the spring 2022 session of its Mentor Immersion program.

The five-month, all-online mentorship program will begin in January 2022. Small groups of students will meet online once per week to learn under the guidance of an expert in the field. Students should expect to spend an additional two to four hours per week on assignments, including a research project.

(Does this sound like too much for your child to take on during the school year? PTY will offer a summer mentorship program, with dates running May-August and June-September. Join the PTY email list to be notified when applications for summer are available.)

Most topics of study are in life sciences. Classes in rhetoric, leadership, and law are also available.

This program is rigorous and the application requires a transcript, test scores, and an essay. PTY will conduct its first round of application reviews on November 2, 2021. After that date, PTY will use a rolling admissions process to fill spaces that aren’t already taken.

Tuition for the program is $2,750. Need-based financial aid is available.

The next session of Georgia Tech’s CEISMC programs will be Saturday, Oct. 23, and will be loosely tied into a Harry Potter theme.

K.I.D.S. Club, open to students in grades 2 through 5, will feature topics including catapults, potions, and “the magic of plants.”

Students in grades 6 through 12 can enroll in STEAM Workshops, with topics such as polymers, coding, and 3-D modeling.

The October workshops will be held in person, on the Georgia Tech campus, with the exception of one online option — a session on code, craft, and storytelling for middle-school students.

Future CEISMC workshops will be held on November 20 and December 11.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology invites anyone interested in birds or citizen science to take part in its October Big Day this Saturday, October 9.

By participating, you’ll be joining thousands of other birders around the world who are making note of birds they see. As with other citizen-science birding events, October Big Day helps scientists see patterns in bird populations and migrations.

You can be part of Global Big Day by watching for birds for as little as 10 minutes, anytime during the day, at any location — although if you’re looking for a birding hot spot, the Cornell Lab can make suggestions. You’ll log the birds you spot through the free eBird mobile app. I use this app myself. It’s not completely intuitive, but it’s pretty easy to learn using the online tutorial. Once you learn to use it for October Big Day, you can continue using it anytime to submit lists of the birds you see, as often (or as rarely) as you like.

If you’re new to birding, you may want to also download the Cornell Lab’s Merlin app, which can help you identify birds by size, by coloring, and even by song.

The CEISMC program at Georgia Tech will host STEAM Workshops for students in grades 6 through 12 and K.I.D.S. Club classes for students in grades 2 through 5 on Saturday, September 25. Both programs are taking place on the Georgia Tech campus.

The sessions for elementary and middle-school students focus on various aspects of coding. High-school students will learn the basics of computer-based 3-D automotive design.